Jon Jones made light work of Stipe Miocic in their UFC 309 headliner Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
The UFC heavyweight championship bout topped a 12-bout fight card which included Charles Oliveira’s masterclass over Michael Chandler at lightweight, Bo Nickal’s three-round win over Paul Craig, and particularly brutal wins for Jim Miller over Damon Jackson and Marcin Tybura against Jhonata Diniz.
Jones now has two wins in UFC’s heavyweight division after a lengthy light heavyweight reign
Jones defeated Miocic by third-round knockout. The result looked to be guaranteed in the opening round alone, as Jones, 37, took the 42-year-old Miocic down with ease, and just attacked him with one of the most brutal elbow attacks of the year with such dominance that the judges should have scored it a 10-8 round.
Watch the opening round’s ground-and-pound right here:
To underline how one-sided the opening round was, Jones landed 49 of 56 strikes, and nailed his sole takedown. Miocic, meanwhile, connected with just 11 strikes from 18.
Jones teed off on Miocic with strikes in the third, used his jab effectively from start to finish, and crumpled Miocic with an incredible spinning back kick to the rib-cage to close the show in emphatic fashion with hammer blows to the skull for good measure.
Watch the finish right here:
After his win was announced, which advanced his pro MMA record to 28 wins (11 KOs and 7 Subs) against one defeat, via disqualification, Jones hinted that emerging heavyweight rival, interim champion Tom Aspinall, could be next for him.
“I have decided that maybe I will not retire and that I have some conversations to have with Dana [White] and Hunter [Campbell] … and if everything goes right, maybe we’ll give you guys what you want to see.”
| Jon Jones’ professional MMA record (as of 17/11/24) | ||
|---|---|---|
| 30 fights | 28 wins | 1 loss |
| By knockout | 11 | 0 |
| By submission | 7 | 0 |
| By decision | 10 | 0 |
| By disqualification | 0 | 1 |
| No contests | 1 | |
He finished by remarking that after negotiations with White and Campbell, the UFC chief business officer, “You guys will hear about it soon.”
The former UFC heavyweight champ fought his final fight
As for Miocic, who saw his record fall to 20 wins (15 KOs) against five defeats, the former champion announced that it was time he called it a day, aged 42 — the defeat to Jones would be the final fight of his illustrious career.
“I’m done, I’m hanging up [my gloves]. I’m retiring.”
Watch his retirement speech right here:
Earlier on the pay-per-view UFC 309 card, the American wrestler needed all three rounds to score a decision win over Paul Craig, Viviane Araujo beat Karine Silva in a women’s flyweight fight, and Mauricio Ruffy earned a decision win over James Llontop at a 166.2-pound catchweight.
